A Set Up
by thejilyship
Summary: Lily and her grandmother have breakfast together every Sunday, that's how it's been for as long as Lily can remember. But one Sunday, she comes over to visit and is greeted by somebody else entirely. She can't shake the feeling that it seems a bit planned. AU Jily One-Shot


**AN: This has been posted on my tumblr for a while, but I'm trying to do some organizing and I'm trying to work out what I want to have on this site. But that's for me to dwell on...**

 **I hope you all enjoy this little one-shot. It was fun to write. Reviews and reviewers are golden**

 **oOo**

* * *

 **oOo**

Lily had been going over to her grandmother's house every Sunday morning for breakfast since she was little. After her parents passed away, she continued to do this, only now she came by herself, as her sister had moved north with her husband and that was all the family Lily had. Her sister and her paternal grandmother.

Anita Evans was a strong and opinionated woman, her trust and admiration was hard won, but she'd always had a soft spot for her quirky and idealistic granddaughter. She was proud of Petunia of course, she had married well and she had gone to uni and, well, that was enough for any grandmother to be proud, but Lily and her had a special bond. Everything that Lily did excited Anita, from going away to boarding school and becoming Head Girl to learning to drive and running errands for her.

Her grandmother had lived on the same plot of land her entire life, and while the surrounding area had changed, even since Lily had been alive, the inside of the house never seemed to change. And so, Lily was surprised when she came over one Sunday morning in the middle of August, to find that her grandmother's drapes in the kitchen had changed from a pale yellow, to a bright floral print. When Lily commented on them, her grandma smiled.

"Oh yes, that's my new neighbor's influence." She said, and now Lily had to narrow her brow because her grandmother hated new neighbors. She liked Mr. Gary, who had lived three doors down for nearly five decades, and she enjoyed Angelina Rosewood's company every now and then as the girls had grown up together, but that was about it. Everyone else on her street was an interloper as far as she was concerned. "Her grandson helped us put them up, he's quite a looker. Most polite boy your age I've ever met too."

And that was the first Lily Evans heard of James Potter.

When she came over the following weekend, the fence had been repainted to its original grass green, the mailbox was straightened, and the front door no longer squeaked when she went to open it. "Oh you just missed Val's grandson," Her grandmother exclaimed when she walked into the kitchen, holding the groceries she'd brought over. Val, who Lily assumed was her grandmother's new neighbor was seated at the tabled beside her grandmother, both woman holding tea cups that Lily had only ever seen displayed in a glass cabinet.

"I noticed the fence," Lily said, nodding towards the front door.

"You'll have to check out the backyard, he's been fixing up deck too. He brought a friend of his yesterday and they cleared out all the old junk your grandpa hoarded over the years." She rolled her eyes while mentioning her husband, but Lily saw her hand reach over to play with the ring she still wore. "Lovely boys." She said, handing Lily a cup of tea and pulling out the chair next to her. "Val, this is my granddaughter Lily, she's the one going to University to be a doctor."

"I know who she is," Val pursed her lips and set down her teacup, extending her arm to Lily. "You've only got about a million pictures of the girl all over the place." Lily took her hand. "It's nice to finally meet you in person, Lily. Though I feel as though I already know you."

"I've heard quite a bit about you as well," She smiled. "Can I ask how you managed to get my Gran to talk to you? She normally slams the door when new neighbors come knocking." Val and Anita laughed, and Val shook her head, launching into a story about how they had started this friendship of theirs by accident. Anita had received one of Val's letters and so she had went over to put it in the correct mailbox, but Val had spotted her and thought that she had been being nosy. The two had argued and shouted for quite a while before they had worn themselves out and decided that they may as well quit causing a ruckus and just drink some tea. That had spurred a conversation about how noisy the neighbors could be and they had been friends ever since.

Lily found herself, quite like her grandmother, drawn to this woman. She was older than her gran by maybe a decade or so, but she was sharp as a whip and funny as hell.

The following week, she went to walk into the house and found the front door locked. She knocked for a few moments and then began to worry that something was wrong. Her grandmother knew when to expect her, as she always showed up around nine o'clock, and she never left the door locked when she was expecting Lily. She went around the house to check the back door and was startled to find a man in a thick black sweatshirt holding a hammer with a mouth full of nails standing where the deck used to be.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" She shouted, almost dropping the groceries she had brought over. The man jumped and the nails fell out of his mouth. He swore and dropped down to his knees to collect them. He looked up at her, while picking up the nails.

"You must be Lily," He said. "Your gran said I should expect you."

Lily took a deep breath and relaxed. "So you're James then?" She asked. He nodded his head and stood up, reaching his hand into his pocket.

"She left me a key." He tossed it to Lily and she, surprisingly, caught it with her free hand.

"Yes, but where is she?"

"She's out with my gran." James smiled. "I've never seen anyone get along as well as they do."

"I've never seen my grandmother get along with anyone as well as she gets along with Val." James chuckled but narrowed his brow.

"What do you mean? Nita's great."

"Oh she only likes you because you're fixing up her house. You should have heard her lay into my grandad about all the stuff that needed to get done. But he never got around to it on account of the fact that he was bound to a wheelchair for the last ten years of his life." Lily chuckled.

"Well she seems to like you an awful lot," He grinned and ran a hand through his hair. "Keep telling me how pretty you are." Lily blushed and shook her head. Why was her grandmother chatting up some random boy _for_ Lily? "I would have thought she was exaggerating if she didn't have so many pictures of you all over the place." Lily's face went even redder and James chuckled.

"She's only got two granddaughters." Lily muttered, digging her toe into the ground. She shook her head. "I should go and put the groceries away." James nodded and then went to put the nails back in his mouth, turning back towards the deck.

Lily, unable to use the deck as it was currently in shambles, walked back to the front of the house and unlocked the front door. She put the groceries away and then decided to make tea. She walked to the back of the house and opened the back door. "You didn't say when they'd be back." She said.

James turned his head and grinned at her. He finished hammering the nail he was working on and then turned towards her. "They didn't say when they were going to be back. They drove south to an antique show, could be gone all day I suppose. It was about an hour drive." Lily tapped her foot against the floor.

"Why wouldn't she tell me? We have breakfast _every_ Sunday. Since I was born." She asked, more to herself than him, but he heard and decided to answer nonetheless.

"Excluding the years you were in boarding school." He smirked, hammering in another nail.

"What?"

"She told me that you'd throw a fit about her not telling you that she was leaving. That you'd say that the two of you had had breakfast together every Sunday since you were born and that I should reply with 'excluding the years you were in boarding school.'" Lily blinked at him and pressed her lips together.

"So," She chewed on the inside of her cheek and pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "My gran is trying to set us up?"

James turned and laughed. "You're just now working that out are you? And it's not just your gran. You made quite the impression on mine last week too."

Lily didn't know how she felt about that. Her grandmother, who never though anyone was worth half a pint of expired ice cream, who held Lily on such a pedestal that not even the Pope could reach her, she was trying to set her up with this bloke? Should she be upset about that? Though what did that say about James? He was obviously a thoughtful person, helping her gran fix up the place just because it was his gran's friend.

"Quit sizing me up, would you? It's distracting." He hammered in another nail.

"I'm not- I mean-"

"You were too." He looked over and grinned. "S'alright. I was surprised too when they said that they were putting this together. Though I shouldn't be too surprised, my gran hates all the girls I date so of course she's going to try and pick 'em for me."

"Why are you rebuilding my gran's deck?" Lily asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

James shrugged. "She made me dinner last night."

"She's a terrible cook." Lily said, "What's the real reason?"

"She is not!" He exclaimed. "She made a pot roast and it was delicious."

Lily was skeptical, as she had had more pieces of burnt toast and raw bacon than she cared to think about over the years. "Fine, don't tell me." She was about to turn on her heel and head back to the kitchen when she figured that she couldn't completely dismiss him. "I'm going to make breakfast, as I haven't eaten anything yet. Are you hungry?"

"I could eat." He grinned and Lily shook her head as she walked away. She couldn't tell if he was a complete prat or not. Though, her grandmother wouldn't have set her up on a blind date over breakfast if he was. She grumbled to herself about hating surprises and blind dates as she made French toast and bacon.

"You need any help?" James asked, when he walked in the kitchen. He had woodchips in his hair and on his sweatshirt and Lily didn't remember hearing the table saw turn on, but she had been rather wrapped up in her own mind.

"No, thank you though. I'm almost done."

"Any tea?"

"On the table, it should still be warm."

"Thank you," Lily nodded and a moment later she turned off the stove top and brought the food over to the table. She had barely sat down before James started talking.

"So you're going to school to be a doctor?" He asked, piling a few pieces of French toast onto his plate and taking a drink of his tea at the same time. Lily brushed some saw dust off the table and he scrunched up his nose apologetically.

"Yes," She nodded. "I'm almost done with med school and hope to intern for the hospital down the street next fall actually."

"St. Mungo's?" He asked. "They're good, that's where my grandma got her hip replaced."

"Yes," She nodded. They were quiet for a moment as they fixed their breakfasts. "What is it that you do?" She asked.

James shrugged. "A bit of everything I guess. My mate and I bought this old house over on Harrison that we're fixing up."

"And that's a job?" Lily asked, trying not to sound critical.

"It is if we make a profit." James grinned. "I don't have an office job or anything." Lily wasn't sure what that meant, but it sounded like a fancy way to say that he was unemployed. "I mean, I went to school," He said. "I went to a university and got my masters in criminal justice. Thought I wanted to work for the government like my mum, but I don't know. I'm not good at wearing a tie."

Lily took a bite of her French toast and chewed it slowly. Her grandmother liked him and he was unemployed? "Well if you had to tell someone what your job was, what would you say?" She asked, unable to let this go. She supposed that maybe her grandmother didn't know, but she always asked almost anyone she met what they did for a living.

"You and your gran are surprisingly alike." He smirked. "I run a pub with my mates." He said. "And before you look at me like Anita did," Lily froze mid-grimace, "It's not one of those dingy pubs down town, we've got a nice location out by the river and we're hoping to expand soon so we can serve dinner as well as drinks. We're in the green."

"Same mate or different mate that helped you clear out my gran's backyard?"

"Sirius is one 'em." He nodded. "He was the one out here helping out. It's me and three other blokes that run the pub, we've been friends since we were eleven. More like brothers than mates."

"What's it called?"

"Marauder's." James grinned, taking a bite of bacon.

"But it's a classy joint?" Lily laughed. "Sounds like a place for pirates." James rolled his eyes.

"Never heard that before." He shook his head. "What about you?"

"What about me?" She grinned.

"Well, have you got any mates?"

"Of course I do." She narrowed her eyes. "Mary and I've been friends since secondary, and then there's Marlene and Dorcas." She said. "But I don't have any of the same friends I did when I was eleven. That's pretty impressive."

"More like lucky." He said with a shrug. "Sometimes you meet the people that are going to be in your life forever when you're young, sometimes you gotta wait until you're our grandmothers' age."

They finished breakfast about ten minutes later, but they didn't stop talking for the entire morning. James cleaned up the dishes and then Lily joined him in the backyard and tried to help with the deck, but mostly they just talked. They talked about the professor Lily had that liked to call on her only when she wasn't raising her hand and the bloke that delivered the alcohol that seemed to fancy one of James' friends named Peter. They talked about Lily's old tire swing that James had fixed last week on the old tree in the backyard, and the fact that Lily's gran really was a terrible cook and just impossible to say no to. Lily learned that James would do just about anything for his friends, including bail them out of jail at three in the morning (Sirius). And he would spend three straight nights in the hospital when they found out they were sick (Remus). He'd even drive six hours to see you in your first theater show even if you were just a stage hand (Peter). Before she realized it, it was three in the afternoon.

Her gran walked out to the backyard, Val by her side, both women carrying boxes of trinkets that they'd collected at the antique show. Anita looked surprised to see Lily was still there, but Val just grinned.

"Here, Grandmum," James said, setting down the plank of wood he'd just measured and cut and taking the box from her. "I'll go and set this on the table?" She nodded and he walked off to the neighboring house. Both Val and Anita turned to look at Lily and instead of saying anything to her, they just started talking to one another.

"I told you that they'd get along," Anita said, shifting the box that she was holding over to her hip.

"I told _you._ " Val corrected. "Besides I'm the one that introduced you to James, so I get credit for this."

"I had you over when I knew Lily was coming around," Anita snapped.

"You two can bicker over who engineered this all you want, but I'm upset with both of you," Lily said, crossing her arms. She wasn't really upset, she really did like James, he seemed to be not as big of a prat as she originally thought.

"Why?" Anita asked.

"You know that I hate surprises and blind dates."

"You could have left," Val said. "When he told you that we'd gone out." Anita raised her brows at Lily and smirked. Lily just laughed.

"I know when my gran expects me to do something-"

"I didn't expect you to stay here all afternoon, Lily." They continued to tease her even after James came back and he just smiled at her and rolled his eyes. She grinned down at her feet and thought that maybe she didn't hate surprises _all_ that much.


End file.
